Tobey’s Top 10 Roses for 2025
As the buyer of plants for Venture Out Nursery, disease resistance is top of my criteria list for any plant I bring in, but especially so with roses. The PNW is a challenging setting for even the toughest of plants, so why would we mess around with any cultivars with less-than-great ratings? For my top ten list, only the most fragrant and disease resistant plants make the cut. Following that, subjective factors come into play, such as color and petal count and a relaxed shrubby habit. So if you like a very petally and pungent plant that is easy to grow, you’re sure to enjoy any variety on this list. (The fine print: I have not grown all of these roses. My choices are based on research, not experience. I’d need a million-dollar allowance for deer fencing and staff to grow all the roses I lust for!)
Bolero
This one makes me nostalgic for my time as a wedding florist. The very fluffy white flowers are barely blushed with a hint of pink, and strongly saturated with a stupendous scent of “rose” stirred with tropical fruit – YUMMMM!!!! The flowers really pop against the disease-resistant, deep green foliage. This floribunda is a reliable rebloomer with a compact habit, making it a good choice for a small garden, tight spot, or even a pot. What a winner!
Celestial Night
Hot pink is my guilty pleasure color and purple is a close second, so it’s natural that I’m attracted to this richly colored bloom! Vibrant color plus exceptional disease-resistance are a winning combo, not to mention the good ratings for fragrance and vase life. Its rounded habit makes it as good a choice for a hedge as for a focal shrub.
Fun In the Sun
The orangey-pinky-gold sunrise tones of these flowers begin popsicle-vibrant, then fade to ice cream pastels as the fruity fragrant blooms age. I’m all in – apricot is my favorite flower color. Add superb resistance to powdery mildew, rust and downy mildew, and a petal count that balances being fluffy-ruffley yet open enough for pollinators – this hybrid tea is guaranteed a spot on my list!
(Arborose) Kiss Me Kate
I have a few of the Arborose series in my garden and they have not disappointed. The plants all live up to the breeding guidelines of long-lasting repeat blooms, excellent disease resistance and fragrance. Kiss me Kate offers all this plus great vase life so you can enjoy her luscious blooms indoors and out!
Parfuma Summer Romance
Floribundas are a great choice to include in the garden for repeat bloom that will guarantee color throughout the summer (with proper watering). This cultivar will scent your whole garden with her quartered, ruffled cup-shaped blooms of watermelon bubblegum pink! Care should be easy, given the vigor and disease resistance.
Pavement – Snow and Purple
What an unfortunate name for this great series of roses! I grow both these cultivars in my garden. I do nothing for them and nonetheless they crank out fragrant flowers all summer and then beautiful fat red fruit in the fall. Throughout June, when bloom is the heaviest, my garden is laced with their delicious scent – it often makes me stop in my tracks just to inhale and savor the moment. I don’t know if the “pavement” name came from how tough they are, or for how densely they spread, but that is something one should know about these plants. They are in the rugosa group and while they are dense, compact growers, they definitely creep, making an ever-larger patch of themselves. Make sure you’ve got room for this one to spread. These are a great choice for seaside gardens, for naturalizing and for holding bluffs, and strangely enough – the deer mostly leave them alone!
Polka
Oh goody, another apricot rose! This one is a vigorous climber that has all the fragrant, ruffled romance of the old roses combined with the attributes that modern breeding programs demand: repeat flowering, disease tolerance, and winter hardiness. The strong apricot color will turn more peachy during warm weather.
Queen Mary 2
This royal rose has all the poise of her namesake. Her classic, high centered buds the color of bone china have a distinctive, strong fragrance of sweet rose and banana. With excellent disease resistance and winter hardiness, this hybrid tea would do well in any Whidbey Island garden.
Sunbelt Tupelo Honey
Here’s another great floribunda. Sweetly scented flowers of butterscotch yellow bloom abundantly in repeated flushes all summer over a consistent backdrop of dark green, shiny foliage. Excellent in a cottage garden setting or in a more modern landscape where a great summer bloomer is needed.
That’s a wrap on the 2025 top 10 Roses! These and lots more varieties will be available bare root and ready to plant starting in late January, be sure to sign up to get our emails or watch our social media where we’ll announce their arrival…